NEW ORLEANS – Today, Gov. Bobby Jindal and inXile Entertainment founder and CEO Brian Fargo announced the company will establish a video game development studio in New Orleans. The company will create 50 new direct jobs over the next five years, with an average annual salary of $75,000, plus benefits. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project will result in 64 indirect jobs for a total of more than 110 new jobs in Louisiana’s Southeast Region.

The new facility in New Orleans will be inXile’s first expansion outside its headquarters in Newport Beach, California. The company specializes in the development of interactive entertainment software for all popular game systems, ranging from the PlayStation 4 to iOS and Android smartphones. Game designers at inXile have been the creative force behind such titles as Torment: Tides of Numenéra, The Bard’s Tale and Wasteland 2.

Gov. Jindal said, “With each new digital media investment, New Orleans is becoming a brighter beacon in the tech sector. Our strong business climate and highly skilled workforce are attracting innovative companies like inXile to our state, along with the great new jobs they’re creating. We’re confident they will find qualified professionals here in Louisiana as they provide creative, interactive entertainment to gamers around the world.”

Fargo founded inXile in 2002. Along with President Matthew Findley, Fargo guides the company in using cutting-edge game engines, including Unreal Engine 4 and Unity 5, as well as making in-roads in new technologies, such as virtual reality. The company employs a mix of studio veterans and new talent to collaborate on high-quality products. Building strong relationships with its core audiences, inXile uses this input to deliver high attention to detail for a memorable gaming experience.

“We are very excited to be opening inXile's first satellite office in the state of Louisiana,” Fargo said. “The people here have an amazing energy and friendly way that can only be understood when you visit. We’re proud to be part of the first wave of companies that will help establish Louisiana as the next major high-tech center. Every year, colleges and universities in Louisiana graduate qualified candidates that would love nothing more than to work in the games industry. We are proud to be a part of a movement to keep those talented people in Louisiana.”

A longtime industry veteran, Fargo established Interplay Entertainment in 1983, which became a Top 5 PC game publisher, producing some of the biggest franchises in video game history, including Bard’s Tale, Fallout and Wasteland. Fargo continued the Wasteland legacy at inXile with the production of Wasteland 2, which was recently financed by its fans through a Kickstarter campaign.

“We are proud to welcome inXile Entertainment to New Orleans. Digital media has become a major growth industry for our local economy, and that is why we are seeing companies like inXile choose to do business here,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said. “I applaud our economic development agencies for their partnership in positioning New Orleans and Louisiana as one of the best places to do business in the nation.”

LED and GNO Inc. began discussions with inXile in June 2015. To secure the development office project, the State of Louisiana offered a competitive incentive package that includes the services of LED FastStart® – the nation’s No. 1-ranked state workforce development program. The company, which is expected to utilize Louisiana’s Digital Interactive Media and Software Development Incentive, also will receive support from a combined $10,000 in relocation expenses from GNO Inc. and the New Orleans Business Alliance, or NOLABA.

“Following months of working with inXile leadership, GNO, Inc. is thrilled to welcome this renowned studio to our region," said Michael Hecht, President and CEO of Greater New Orleans, Inc. “inXile adds significantly to the critical mass of game developers in Greater New Orleans and Louisiana, and augments our momentum as one of the fastest growing locations for knowledge jobs in the United States. We look forward to supporting inXile’s growth and success in New Orleans."

“The decision by inXile to relocate to New Orleans further validates the city’s increasing recognition as a creative digital media mecca,” said NOLABA President and CEO Quentin Messer. “We are thrilled to welcome the inXile team, and anticipate that their success will be accelerated by this decision. Recognizing that this announcement is only the beginning, we are very excited to assist them during this important moment in the company’s history and will help integrate inXile fully into the city’s business and creative communities.”

Maybe I'm out of line, but that press release sounds really iffy. 110 employees is huge, it is as far as I know like double their main office in Long Beach (I think I remember reading on RPGCodex that InXile has about 50 employees in the actual office?). What are they going to be making? Will they be making hardcore RPG's with the same mentality as Fargo's main office? Will they be taking orders from main office/Fargo or will they have autonomy? Will they have their own designers and be making their own games or will they simply be doing work for head office?

Also, it sounds like the decision was based on politics, a quick google on this Bobby Jindal guy reveals he's currently running for President (!!), I wonder if Fargo might of been talked into this to be part of some election stunt so this guy can say he's "employing local people".

Then again, it can't be cheap to live in Orange County/California, so maybe they're outsourcing to save costs. Also a bit in that statement seems to imply that some kind of incentive was offered for them to open in New Orleans, ie government subsidy of some type.

EDIT: Also, whatever happened to InXile the small and nimble company that Fargo mentioned constantly? Sounds awfully like he might be making the same mistake twice (ie Interplay) by expanding too fast. Especially when you consider that WL2 wasn't a mega-success (like, it didn't sell 1 million copies or I'm sure Fargo would of said something).

Congrats to inXile for growing, but I too would welcome some more information about what the new office will do (work on other games, help the main inXile with current projects, handle things like porting to other platforms, ...) and what the relationship will be.

Congrats I guess? I'm very skeptical with all of this though. First, La, blech! Lovely to visit but I would never want to live in that backwards ass state. Second, 110 people??? I'm obviously not privy to inXile's finances, but suddenly doubling or tripling in size? Was inXile involved in some investor seeding recently? I just can't imagine WL2 made that kind of money, not with Steam stats under 500k sold. Either way, it's clear inXile has either a very large project planned or are stepping into an indie publishing role, where this new studio will produce independently with inXile acting as publisher, kinda of like creating their own Bioware/EA scenario for example. If that's the case, I wouldn't be surprised if inXile starts buying up small studios in the future.

Crosmando wrote:110 employees is huge, it is as far as I know like double their main office in Long Beach

Lucius wrote:Second, 110 people???

I feel like people are misreading the press release, so just to clarify:

The company will create 50 new direct jobs over the next five years, with an average annual salary of $75,000, plus benefits. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project will result in 64 indirect jobs for a total of more than 110 new jobs in Louisiana’s Southeast Region.

"new direct jobs" represents an estimate for our new studio, not right away but over the next five years (including people moving over from Newport Beach). The other numbers are their estimates for job creation indirectly caused by our new studio, but those would not be people employed by us.

Looking forward to visiting the studio when it's rolling. Haven't been to New Orleans in 6 years, and that was in quite a different spot/circumstances (doing reconstruction volunteering work in and around the Lower Ninth Ward)

Just one biased person's opinion, but putting any type of business 20 feet below sea level on a coast prone to hurricanes is a big mistake. You want to know where all the really good game developers in the area work? They work here in Austin, Texas. That's why Star Citizen has a dev center here. That's why Lord British (Garriott) is here, that's why Edge of Reality games is here. And many, many others.

Having said that, the last thing Austin needs is more Californians (y'all can't drive worth a damn). So this is a good thing.